Lucilio's wisdom had much ado to reconcile the warm affection which the marquis really deserved with the feelings naturally aroused by his childishness. But, hopeless of correcting so old a child, reason advised him to make the best of him and to love him as he was. The philosopher would have preferred that Mario should not be overwhelmed with splendor and finery at the outset of his new career, but rather that he should be told something of the new duties he had to fulfil. He found some consolation in the fact that the child was less intoxicated by the possession of all those things, than overjoyed and touched by the affection and endearments of which he found himself the object. On the following day D'Alvimar, who had passed a sleepless night, requested through Bellinde, who obligingly acted as his nurse, permission to keep his room until afternoon. The marquis paid him another brief visit, and was struck by the alteration of his features. He had had ghastly visions, under the spell of the sinister prophecies that had been hurled at him. Daylight had finally revived hope in his heart, and he slept part of the day. XXVII The marquis took advantage of this respite to recur to the subject of dress. He went up with Mario and Adamas to the vacant room on the fourth floor, that is to say, immediately over the _Salle des Verdures_. That unfinished apartment was strewn with innumerable chests and cupboards; and Mario, as soon as the padlocks were removed, and the lids raised and doors thrown open, fancied that he was in fairyland. There was a bewildering mass of magnificent stuffs, dazzling gold lace, ribbons, laces, feathers and jewels, rich hangings, cordovan leather, furniture in parts, all new and ready to be put together, reliquaries heavy with precious stones, beautiful paintings on glass which needed only to be assembled, lovely enamelled mosaics, arranged in piles and numbered, whole pieces of fine linen, enormous guipure curtains, with gold and silver stripes; in a word, a hoard of plunder, which smelt of the partisan warrior a league away, and which the marquis considered to have been legally acquired at the sword's point. This receptacle of rich spoil was known in the household as the store-room, the garret. It was supposed to contain spare articles of furniture, together with what was broken or discarded. Adamas alone was aware of the contents of those wonderful chests, and under his breath he called that room the _treasure_ or the _abbey_. There were no fashionable gewgaws, as in the marquis's apartments, but artistic objects and fabrics of great value and great beauty, some of great antiquity, and the more valuable on that account: stuffs manufactured by processes no longer known, weapons of all sizes and of all nations, many excellent pictures, valuable manuscripts, etc.